Company Research

Key Tools for Conducting Company Research

The Best Research Sources?

Go to your favorite search engine – i.e. Google -- and find the company's Website. Most public companies have a section of their Websites dedicated to investor relations and often have their annual reports online and in downloadable form.

Job Search Intelligence -- a great salary research tool for job-seekers, with a comprehensive set of questions to provide accurate compensation data. (Currently offering information on 480 occupations, within 560 geographic regions.)

Hoover's Online: once self-proclaimed as "the ultimate source for company information," this Website offers a lot of information -- very little for free and most for a fee.

Canadian Business Resource: offers in-depth information and profiles as well as links to more than 2,600 of Canada's top performing businesses -- some for free and some for a fee.

CorporateInformation -- a great resource for researching companies and industries in the United States and around the world. Search for company and industry information -- or search by U.S. state or by country to find companies that operate within a specific geographic region. More than 350,000 company profiles. Some Free content for job-seekers.

Vault.com -- well-known for its insider reports on thousands of companies.

The Public Register's Annual Report Service (PRARS): includes the ability to order printed versions of annual reports (for free) and a service titled "Corporate Window," which provides various corporate and financial information for a select group of companies.

The Forbes 500: a comprehensive database of the 500 largest American public corporations as measured by sales, profits, assets, and market value.

Forbes Largest Private Companies: an annual ranking of the top private companies in the U.S., including number of employees, sales ranking, and a brief company description.

The Inc. 500: a listing and short description of the 500 fastest growing privately-held companies in the U.S.

Better Business Bureau: includes links to companies that are members of the organization. 3. Web-Based Company Research Links:

Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios, by Troy Leo. Prentice-Hall.

Annual Statement Studies. Robert Morris Associates.

Key Tools for Conducting Country Research for International Job Markets

Online Country Research Resources:

CIA World Factbook: detailed snapshots, compiled by the U.S. government, of just about every country in the world.

CountryReports.org: a great source for finding top-line information about just about every country in the world, including culture, geography, economy, political system, news, maps, and more.

Country Studies: from the U.S. Library of Congress. These guides cover social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of more than 100 countries throughout the world.

globalEDGE: a comprehensive global business resource center from the folks at Michigan State University. Key strength are links to further information.

Global Insight: provides comprehensive economic, financial, and political coverage of countries, regions, and industries available from any source -- covering more than 200 countries and spanning more than approximately 170 industries.

International Business & Technology: a learning portal that provides links to business, communication, import-export, linguistic, legal, marketing, media, monetary, public affairs, research, technology, trade, and travel information at both world and country levels. From BRINT Institute.

Sperling's BestPlaces.net -- where you'll find a wealth of data, statistics, and comparisons about U.S. cities, counties, and foreign countries.

Key Tools for Conducting Research on People/Individuals

ZoomInfo -- a great tool for researching people. Calls itself a unique summarization search engine that finds, understands and extracts the latest online information about people and companies and instantly delivers it to you in concise and useful summaries. No cost to job-seekers.

EnhanceMyWriting.com: Internet Reference Resources on the Web: a great place to find resources to get information about companies and industries, with links to libraries and reference material on the Web.